Dental insurance policies usually cover preventive checkups, because most dental disease is preventable and most dental problems are less severe if they are caught early. Because dental insurance carriers want to encourage policyholders to adopt a preventive policy when caring for their teeth, most dental insurance policies pay more to the patient for preventive measures than they do if problems are allowed to develop and then must be corrected.
Nearly half of all Americans have dental insurance plans of one form of another. If they can't get dental insurance through their place of employment, people seek private dental insurance plans.